Borders Widens Loss on Poor Margins

By IBT Staff Reporter On 05/30/07 AT 10:54 AM

Shares of Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) fell more than 3 percent on Wednesday, a day after the bookseller posted another quarterly loss, seeing its deficit in the first quarter nearly doubled from the loss seen last year.

The book seller said after the close that it lost $35.9 million, or 61 cents per share during the quarter, compared with the $20.2 million, 31 cent loss in the year-ago period. Revenue at rose slightly to $885.8 million compared to $867.7 million last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected the company to lose 38 cents a share on sales of $876 million.

Our first quarter results were generally in-line with our internal expectations, although the current sales environment was more challenging than we anticipated and that trend has continued, said Borders CEO George Jones.

Shares of the Borders fell 81 cents, or 3.47, to 22.51 in Wednesday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Ann Arbor, Mich-based firm saw its results hurt by flat DVD sales and increased discounting. Gross margin as a percentage of sales fell nearly 1 percent to 22.4 percent, the company said.

Same-store sales in locations open over a year - an important industry metric - fell by 1.9 percent domestically.

The company did not release quarterly guidance, but it believes things should improve through out the year.

We are focused on executing our strategic plan and improving results, including returning the company to earnings per share growth beginning in 2008, Jones added.